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Over ten years ago I started a little website called PlanetSide Universe. Little did I realize back then how many amazing experiences this seemingly small thing would give me. I’ve had the pleasure to build some friendships that will last a lifetime and meet so many people I never would have met without this game.

It’s with a heavy heart that I report today we will be “Soft Closing” PSU. What does this mean exactly? This means at least one new thing:

A few services will go offline and the site itself will cease to be updated.

IRC will be shut down effective January 1st

TeamSpeak 3 will be shut down effective January 1st

News and Updates will no longer be posted on the front page.

Twitter and Facebook pages will only exist to occasionally retweet and reshare news.

The Wiki will remain online but will not receive new functionality or official updates.

Advertisements will be disabled

What will not change:

The site itself will remain online, our stat and character pages will continue to function.

The forums will remain online due to the requirement to have a forum account to claim characters and create signatures.

The reasons I have decided to do this are many, I’m not going to delve into them all here but in the comments if you have any questions please post them up. There’s a few people that are hugely responsible for the success of this website over the years and I can’t possibly list everyone. If you aren’t here and you have contributed I extend my personal thanks.

John Smedley - this one is a no brainer. John was instrumental in helping us out through the years and always willing to listen to my personal feedback about the goings on in the game and community. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I consider John a friend and I’m not sure if we would still be here today without him.

T-Ray - I don’t even know where to begin with this one, T-Ray over the years from the original game up until he left PlanetSide 2 was always in our corner and obviously is one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Matt Higby - Always supportive of our site and always willing to sit down for a face to face interview or live Q&A. I’ll never forget the first time I met him and he told me how much he loved PSU and how it was a huge source of feedback during pre-release of PS2. Him and T-Ray were the best dev duo of all time.

Adam Clegg aka Arclegger - Clegg was always around to support our live streams, help us to promote our events and post on the forums. During our few trips out to San Diego he showed us the ropes of what really goes into game development, the tools behind the scenes, the discussions and more. I count Adam among my friends and will continue to stay in contact with him.

RadarX - Community at SOE/DBG have always been awesome. I never felt afraid to vent my frustrations with current events to Radar and ask for advice. He helped so much over the years in so many ways I can’t list them all.

Dave Georgeson - Dave was the first developer who I ever reached out to on PlanetSide, and it was Dave who got us linked up with SOE. He’s been hugely supportive to us over the years and if not for him we probably wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple of years.

Gryphon - This site would be nothing without him. He was the coder behind the scenes who pretty much built this entire website. forum integrations, signatures, character pages, news, content pages.. everything. He worked so many tireless unpaid hours to help build this site over the years. Most folks in the community didn’t know him well, but without him you wouldn’t have 95% of the features on the site.

Last but certainly not least, Jennyboo. She’s supported not only PSU but me throughout the years. She’s been around through all the good times and the hard times. She’s one of the most amazing people I know, and she has the ability to talk to literally anyone. So many of the connections we have made over the years were thanks to her.

This is just a short list of people - there are sooo many more.

And with that thank all of you for continuing to support us over the years. I will still be on Discord as mentioned previously and Twitter as @CDLHamma, just don’t be surprised when there are very few PlanetSide related tweets. I’ll also continue to follow the forum moderation notices for spammers and forgotten passwords.

Thank you all for your continued support over the years, we’ve had some great times.

A short time ago it was revealed on VentureBeat that long time Daybreak/SOE CEO John Smedley has stepped down.

“I can confirm that John Smedley will be taking some time off from the company for the near-term and transitioning to a different role to be determined,” a spokesperson for Daybreak told GamesBeat. “Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided.”

COO Russell Shanks will step in as president of the company. We have John to thank for really pushing PlanetSide in the early days, and PlanetSide 2 most recently, he was always an FPS fan at heart and was a huge part of bringing these games to market. He will be transitioning to a different role presumably at Daybreak and we wish him luck on his future endeavours.

John Smedley took to Reddit yesterday to post an update on the current and future state of PlanetSide 2. In the post he touches on PC vs PS4, the Resource System, Staffing and more.

In the near term, we're adding more people to the Planetside 2 team (hopefully bringing some people back that were former team members) to help us get our development bandwidth to where we want it to be. However, we have plenty of horsepower to deliver on some amazing things this summer already.

The plan is simple - We are going to be taking Planetside 2 to where it needs to be and finally address the stuff should have already. The metagame. We will once and for all be getting the Meta to where it just has to be. That means a comprehensive change that will involve completely revamping resources, changing what territory control means and spending a lot of time giving you reasons to fight. All of this will be done in a fully transparent manner in which we actually put our internal design docs out there for your comment and feedback.

Matt Higby has announced that he has decided to part ways with PlanetSide 2 and Daybreak Games. Matt as well as Ryan Elam, Software Engineer on the PlanetSide 2 team have left the company to pursue other opportunities.

Hey guys - Working on Planetside 2 has been the absolute highlight of my career, but after 4 years working on the game, it's time for a change. Today was my last day on the Planetside 2 team and at Daybreak games. This is a move I've been considering for a while now, and the reorganization provided the right opportunity for me to exit.

Planetside 2 is in great hands, with terrific people who honestly care about the game and the players. I can't stress this enough, the folks working on every aspect of the game, developers, marketing, community are talented, hard working people who care more than you can imagine - I'm fully confident they're going to do an amazing job on the next leg of the journey.

Finally, I wanted to thank all of you in the Planetside 2 community with whom I've shared the last few years, whether in stream chat, tweets, pms or comments you guys have motivated and inspired me all along. You are an amazing community that I'm looking forward to remaining a member of for a long time.

See you on Auraxis!

Matt will be hugely missed in the community and no doubt within Daybreak as well. Head on over to the Reddit thread or our forums to discuss.

Today it was announced that SOE, who just last week changed to Daybreak Game Company was hit with layoffs. Unlike previous layoffs this one has hit high level employees and designers alike.

Last week we announced that we were acquired and are now operating independently as Daybreak Game Company. To better position our newly independent studio for future growth opportunities and to deliver on our legacy of making top online games, we have had to make some tough choices including realignment of resources.

Unfortunately, this realignment means adjusting staffing as well. We announced today that we will eliminate positions in our San Diego and Austin studios. We deeply value our employees and never take these decisions lightly so we’ve done our best to do what’s right for the people affected.

Update: David Carey made a post on Reddit asking for calm and posting some of his thoughts.

I came on to say goodbye to you guys (at least in my current role, prepare for lurking), but after scanning the front page I wanted to change the flavor of the post a bit.

Columbus Nova deserves no hate in all this. They are more like white knights than negative forces here. SOE needed a shake up/new direction, and CN provided that. They have done nothing but been gracious in their new ownership, and they went out of their way to make sure that Devs and support teams that got laid off were taken care of. Right now things seem shitty, and of course for the folks that were let go, today was rough, but CN and DB were both very open about the need for restructuring. This wasn't a surprise to folks in the company.

Gaming is a tough industry, and not for everyone. I've seen lots of people come and go, both good and otherwise. The fact is, there are no (or at least, extremely few) permanent gaming jobs. If you want to have just one job in your career, don't pick gaming, or even computer software. It's just the nature of the beast in such a pioneering industry. But the flip side is that there is always a new opportunity awaiting, it just may require a move to a new location or some other sacrifice.

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that they have been acquired by Investment Firm Columbus Nova. This move means that they are no longer affiliated with Sony.

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

Early this morning Tramell Isaac better known to everyone as T-Ray announced that he will be leaving SOE to pursue a new opportunity. T-Ray is one of the most iconic members of the PlanetSide 1 and PlanetSide 2 teams. He announced that Bill Yeatts would be taking over his Art Director spot.

Introducing... Bill Yeatts as the new Art Director of Planetside2.

I've had a blast working with you guys all these many months. I will certainly miss you all. The good news is, you are in good hands. Bill was on the Ps2 team from start to ship so he is very well versed in what is and is not PlanetSide 2. He is running the show now and he may contradict so of the 'rules' I set in the past, but that is now his prerogative. Please, give my friend a warm welcome to the Player Studio community.

As for me, I will be moving on to another company. Thank you for all of your hard work. It's been a blast.

SOE has announced they will be live streaming on twitch.tv/soe directly from SOE Live this year with over 20 hours of programming. You can find the full schedule on their Twitch page or in the comments thread.

Be sure to tune in on Friday at 4PM Pacific time for the PlanetSide 2 Keynote. There will also be a special $20 SOE Stream pass that grants in game rewards and Twitch emotes. More info is available on the SOE Twitch page.

Today marks the long awaited release of Hossin in PlanetSide 2! Additionally Continent Locking, Outfit Base Capture, Outfit Decals and more are coming.

New Continent! Hossin:

“------//// Deputy Director’s Journal, June 26th, 2859 ////--------

With some unfortunate losses, our mission to Hossin was a success. As expected, the swamp was totally devoid of any humans; NC or otherwise. We experienced some unforeseen setbacks after helplessly watching our pilot transferred into a Galaxy that spawned- and instantly exploded- into the unkempt overgrowth of the swamp. Without the resources to recalibrate the spawn matrix for the terminals, I made the decision to proceed to our given location on foot. Unfortunately, the Vanu apparently left their entire stock of proximity mines at every chokepoint leading up to the manual override for the Rebirth network. With two of us down from stomping on proxy mines, EOD Hud was mandatory in loadouts until we got out of the place.

Early this morning it was announced that soon all ProSieben accounts will be able to migrate over to SOE Services.

As of today’s date (June 18, 2014), region locks have been lifted. New EU players wishing to register should do so via SOE hosted sites.

On or about July 1, 2014, we will offer PSG players the opportunity to migrate their existing accounts to SOE account management, in order to continue playing SOE games. All earned status, characters and in-game coin will transfer with the account.

SOE sent out an e-mail this morning (US) to PlanetSide 2 Players. In it Matt Higby revealed a new aircraft called the Valkyrie as well as a few more tidbits about Outfit Bases, Balance Changes coming and more.

Coming out in Late Summer 2014 it holds 4 players and is a fast attack aircraft. Hit up the comments thread to post your thoughts on the new vehicle!

Today marks the beginning of the second World Domination Series. There have been a ton of changes due to player feedback since the first Season which you can see here.

After the first World Domination Preseason, we took all of your feedback and made some major changes to the rules, scoring and rewards. Today, we're happy to announce the start of PlanetSide 2 World Domination Preseason 2 on Friday, February 7th, 2014 at 12:00 AM PT!! Check out the changes below and prepare for war, Auraxians!

You can also view the current statistics on the preason as well as a countdown till it's over on the official website.

After a short hiatus PlanetSide 2 Community Clash will be returning on March 5th 2014 at 8PM Central Time! This time around there will also be an EU bracket. On the 5th you will see Jenk Squad go up against Sturmgrenadier in the US at 8PM Central and the Foundation vs Rebel Rifles in the EU at 7PM GMT.

For more information and dates hit up the comment thread, and be sure to provide your feedback!

Yesterday Matt Higby posted a status update on Development and frequency of game updates.

Hey all -

As 2014 starts I wanted to give you all a quick note about some changes we're making to the way the game is updated. Over the last few weeks we have been reorganizing our internal build and development processes in order to allow us to expedite builds to live with the goal of updating the live game more often and more regularly. I'm really excited to announce that starting next Wednesday we will begin doing weekly game updates!

What does this mean for you?

Well for starters, it means we'll be more rapidly respond to bugs & balance issues in the game without having to rely on hotfixes as much. We'll also be able to release new content more frequently and consistently. Each individual update will be smaller and more focused, with fewer moving parts that can break, which we hope will greatly decrease the number of bugs being introduced when we update. This doesn't mean that we're not still working on bigger features and larger content pieces, we definitely are and they'll be slotted into the weekly schedule as they're ready to be released. As part of this change we are also going to be updating and playtesting on Test server a lot more often in the future, as always, your playtesting assistance and feedback on the test server will be greatly appreciated.

One final note, the first couple of these weekly updates are going to be a bit smaller than what you can expect to see later on, as we're still shaking off the holiday cobwebs and getting used to the new development processes.

We've got a really terrific slate of new features and content lined up for 2014 that we can't wait to get out to you guys, it's going to be an amazing year for Planetside 2.